Daniels urges worker salary sacrifice

Belt-tightening message rings hollow for some.

Belt-tightening message rings hollow for some.

December 24, 2008|BY CAROL DRAEGER Tribune Staff Writer

What Mitch Daniels proposed Tuesday might feel like a coal-filled stocking for thousands of Indiana public employees. After an earlier decree that state employees would forgo pay increases next year, Daniels in a press statement urged public workers at all levels -- city, county, schools and colleges -- to voluntarily do the same. Daniels said the salary sacrifice would help lift the financial pressure off schools and local governments, and would mirror what employees in Indiana's private sector already have been experiencing: job loss and pay cuts. "Raises will be few and far between in the private economy for awhile," Daniels said in a news release. "Those of us whose paychecks come from our fellow citizens and neighbors ought to look for chances to help those neighbors and show some solidarity." But for some St. Joseph County officials, the belt-tightening message rings hollow. "St. Joseph has been sharing the pain," County Commissioner Robert Kovach said. "There are employees in this county who have not received a raise in three or four years," he said, noting the irony in Daniels' declaration. Kovach said probation officers in the county's adult probation department, who are paid by the state, have received pay increases in the past few years while county employees who work side by side with them have not. He cited other examples of judicial employees in the prosecutor's office who have received pay increases while county employees have not. Kovach also urged Daniels to compare the salaries of state engineers in the Indiana Department of Transportation with the salaries of county engineers. Mark Dobson, president of the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners, said county employees won't receive pay boosts in 2009 because of reduced funds. "Welcome to our world," he rhetorically told the governor when asked what he thought about Daniels' idea. Dobson cautioned that pay freezes can help erase a budget overrun in the short run but in the long term can cost an organization its brightest employees. Other government officials weren't as defiant as Kovach. But two others said their planned pay raises will remain intact. Elkhart County Administrator Tom Byers said he understands the governor's point, but he noted the county has a sturdy budget and can afford the 3 percent raises planned for 2009. "While we appreciate what the governor is proposing, we manage our finances in a manner that we can grant those raises," Byers said. Mishawaka Mayor Jeff Rea offered a similar defense of his 500 city employees' 2 percent pay raises. "We try to give modest increases to keep up with the cost of living," he said, noting that two years ago city employees, including himself, did not receive pay increases, whereas state employees did. "I would argue we already have a smaller work force than any other government entity our size," Rea said. "We cut personnel and we keep asking our folks to do more." Rea said the city's attorney and information technology director each make about $50,000 a year, substantially less than they could earn in the private sector. Daniels acknowledged he has no power to order across-the-board public pay freezes. "I have no way to make this happen, and no intention to criticize anyone who does not act on it," Daniels said in his statement. "But it would be in the best Hoosier tradition of neighbor helping neighbor." The state's planned pay freezes next year will help stave off a projected $763 million budget shortfall. Staff writer Margaret Fosmoe contributed to this report. Staff writer Carol Draeger: cdraeger@sbtinfo.com (574) 807-2941